Landscapes: General Tips

Photographing landscapes can be a tricky task. Especially if you live in a rather boring part of the world.

This post will cover a few tips that you can use to spice up your landscapes.

1. Look for leading lines and patterns. 

The photo above focuses mainly on the lines in the picture. The corn fields had just been planted and the corn was just poking through the soil, allowing the rows to be clearly visible from eye level. The rows lead to the back of the photograph to create more of a vanishing point than leading to a specific subject. The power lines also act as leading lines that lead the eye alone the path of the corn rows into the back of the photo where it vanishes into the distance.

2.  Choose the Right Time of Day

The time of day can really make or break a photograph. If your lighting is dull and boring, your photograph is generally going to tend to be dull and boring as well. The best times to photograph landscapes are at sunset and sunrise. In the middle of the afternoon, is often the worst time for landscapes.

3. Use Reflections

You can use reflections to your advantage in many ways. A few surfaces you could use are class, water, mirrors, windows, and shiny metal.

4. Try silhouettes

Silhouettes, if used properly, can be a useful tool to draw the viewer's eye to a specific thing. In the above picture, the main focus is on the clouds. If the foreground were brighter, the sky would be overexposed, taking detail out of the clouds. It would also distract the viewer's eye and battle for the attention in the photograph.

Think about where you want the main focus of your picture before you snap it so that you can expose and compose it correctly.